SB Nation User Blog: Jughead

Celtics Stuff Live: Kelly Dwyer

Jughead — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 06:59:53 -0000

Kelly "The Cobra" Dwyer from the Yahoo Sports Blog, Ball Don't Lie, joined Celtics Stuff Live to look around the league and provide a national perspective on our hometown Celtics. Kelly is wearing his CSL nickname with pride and put Celtic fans fears to rest in terms of the recent officiating, stating that Bill Kennedy could have Lakers bedsheets for all he knows, but that it is unlikely to be a major factor in the outcome of the season over the long haul. We picked up from last week's interview and asked if Paul Pierce deserved MVP consideration for his unselfish play this year (commonly felt to be the best of his career in these parts) and Kelly did not feel that Paul was at the top of his list.

Kelly felt that Boston still has a lot to prove and should be motivated for the Christmas day bout against Orlando. His sense was that Orlando did not have that same sense of urgency, which might result in a C's victory on the upcoming ABC holiday broadcast. In ranking the eastern contenders, he has Boston, Orlando, and Cleveland in that order but reminded that a lot can change between now and April. He felt that Cleveland should put Lebron at the 4 and use Lebron to push the tempo more often to help pull that team together, and that possibly they had missed a window of opportunity in losing to Orlando last season in the ECF's.

We also previewed the February trade deadline and the impact this summer's impending free agency bonanza might have on a potentially bizarre outcome. Join us on Tuesday night after the game against the Pacers for the Gold Rarities Postgame Show!

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Celtics Stuff Live 12/13: Mike Gorman

Jughead — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 14:42:58 -0000

Celtics Stuff Live grabbed legendary Celtics play by play man, Mike Gorman, before hitting the sights and sounds of Beale Street as the Celtics prepared to face the Memphis Grizzlies on Monday night. Since Mike had not been on the program since Training Camp, Jon and Justin took a look back through the early weeks of this season and caputred Mike's opinions on the Celtics turnaround. In particular, talk zeroed in on the play of Eddie House and his increased and amended role in the aftermath of Marquise Daniels thumb injury. Justin had a few opportunities to bask in the strong glow of Kendrick Perkins' great start and you can imagine Jon's thoughts as Mike effusively praised a certain former Kentucky point guard.

Just before wrapping up the show, Jon asked Mike his thoughts on Lebron James' "RiverdanceGate" and his response was two fold: it was "immature" and the Cavs are beatable.

Sounds good in this corner.

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Celtics Stuff Live 12/6: Austin Ainge

Jughead — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 04:42:00 -0000

It's been a good week for the Celtics.

Sweeping the four game road trip which included back to back games in San Antonio and Oklahoma City, has many fans, including our own crew feeling very bullish about the chances of this Celtics roster once again. The calls of "KG won't be the same" don't seem to ring nearly as true after seeing the ferocity with which Garnett threw down a pair of dunks on the back end of those two games in OKC. Jon, Kevin, and "Justin in the Car" liked a lot of what they were seeing from the Celtics as they were finally playing "Celtics Basketball."

The Head Coach of the Maine Red Claws, Austin Ainge, joined CSL to check in following the Red Claws home opener in Portland on Friday night, and one would imagine Ainge has to be feeling very good about a 4-1 start to his coaching career. Jon, Justin, and Kevin asked Austin about his early season goals for himself and the team, how he has adjusted to the addition of very talented players following his team's training camp, and his reaction to the sold out Portland Expo crowd at Friday night's contest.

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Celtics Stuff Live: Paul Flannery

Jughead — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 19:23:09 -0000

The first Celtics road trip of the season has kicked off with a nice victory in Miami, and Celtics Stuff Live hit the stage following the game to try to figure out how much credit gets shared amongst the Celtic players and who the receipients were. Jon and Justin threw compliments around like Sheed tosses three point attempts, but both agreed that the Celtics defense is still falling short of playing a real 48 minute effort.

Paul Flannery of WEEI.com came aboard and ran down where this team has been and where they might be heading. Paul and the CSL guy spent a lot of time talking about the Celtics wings from Paul Pierce's stupendous early efforts this season to Tony Allen's ability to help this squad (yes, that Tony Allen) to what chances exist Danny Ainge trades Ray Allen this season. As Paul's time on the show wrapped, he and Jon spent a fair amount of time taking turns being even bigger fans of Rajon Rondo.

Catch us again on Thursday for another Gold Rarities Postgame Show following the Celtics - Spurs tilt. See you then.

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Celtics Stuff Live: Scott Souza

Jughead — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 15:44:37 -0000

Celtics Stuff Live took to the "studio" Sunday night after an overtime victory against the Knicks earlier that afternoon. The Madison Square Matinee did not seem to improve Justin's confidence that the team was back on the winning track, while Jon was far more reassured despite being exasperated with Friday night's loss to the Magic. Scott Souza from the MetroWest Daily News joined us to discuss the ills of the team following an excellent article on the topic from today. Scott reminded us about our preseason prediction that Garnett would inevitably need some time to recover and that many would question whether he would ever be the same player again. That was rather comforting. He also felt that the Celtics recent issues were related more to execution than a lack of effort, to which Justin agreed and placed more emphasis on the mental rather than the physical failures of the team. We then discussed the play of Rajon Rondo who Jon, typically only effusive in his praise, felt was deserving of some criticism. Scott countered that the criticism of Rondo may be overblown and stated that, statistically speaking, this may be Rondo's best start to a season.

Later in the show we took calls from KWAPT and the Scotsman, as well as a tweet from Loscy(.com) and took a long look at the merits of Rasheed Wallace and Kendrick Perkins, trying to determine the best role for each player on this team. Justin was a staunch supporter of the recent inclusion of Perkins at the end of games and felt that his defense has been superior to Sheed's in every game to this point.

Tune in next Friday night after the game against the Raptors for our weekly Gold Rarities Postgame Show!

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Celtics Stuff Live 11/8

Jughead — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:35:22 -0000

Celtics Stuff Live took to the airwaves Sunday night at its customary 9pm start time with Justin, Jon, Kevin Henkin, and without a stunning big name guest to draw in the masses. But, oh the people came Ray. A little bit of concern dotted the map as fans, callers, emailers, etc began to see areas of weakness in what was the Good Shop Lollypop just one week ago. Nevertheless, Justin compared Kevin's writing to the unmistakably bitter Maine beverage creation "Moxie" and Jon did a Scooby Doo impression. All in all, just another night in the neighborhood.

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Celtics Stuff Live 11/1: Sean Grande

Jughead — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 12:28:53 -0000

The Celtics improve to 4-0 on the season tonight after defeating the New Orleans Hornets at home. Celtics Stuff Live was not short on topics considering how the game ended with Chris Paul and Rajon Rondo needing to be separated by Paul Pierce as they left the court. It has also been reported that Chris Paul attempted to enter the Celtics locker room after the game as well, which means that we have another budding rivalry on our hands folks.

Sean Grande joined us for the first 12 minutes of the show to kick things off before he and Max took their act to the CSN television studios following the game. Sean was an excellent guest as always and stated that he has no doubt who the best team in the NBA is right now. As we like to do here on CSL, Jon and Justin agreed. Sean made note of the KG's lateral movement being the deciding factor in these games as he is capable of defending at a high level even if only at 85-90% right now.

Callers, e-mails, and tweets made the show as we heard from Silverlock who was at the game, Greg from Cleveland (following up on the season opening loss to our beloved C's), the Scotsman (our one and only regular caller), and Michael from halfway around the world in Melbourne who had a Monday off from work and was able to catch the game on the internet. E-mails from fellow bloggers North Station Sports and Loscy echoed the themes from our callers about the improved inside game exhibited by Ray Allen, a quicker Paul Pierce with a first step that has changed his game, and Shelden Williams contributions in Glen's absence. There's more, so listen to the show!

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CSLive Postgame Show 10/28: Celtics at Cavs

Jughead — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 03:45:36 -0000

The Celtics Are Coming, The Celtics Are Coming!

The Celtics season finally begins tonight against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Kevin Henkin will join Justin Poulin to break down the game and kick off the season in style. We did add a new chat room (click The Pit in the Nav Bar or below for the pop out chat) and it is slick. We'll take your calls after the game and any voicemails or e-mails ahead of time.

After a seemingly quiet offseason, things got interesting quickly with the injury sustained by Glen Davis on Sunday night. If you know Celtics Stuff Live, then you know we'll have plenty to say on the topic ;)

Also, in following up with one of our themes from Sunday night's show, Scott Souza had a nice interview with Marquis Daniels looking forward to defending Lebron James:

"Pretty much, for the most part, I got the LeBron assignment," he said of his time with the Pacers before joining the Celtics as a free agent this summer. "He’s a tough guard. You just have to make it difficult for him."

Not easy for any defender, especially when that defender is way out of James’ weight class.

"You’ve just got to try to make his shots tough," Daniels said. "Don’t give him too many easy looks, keep him off the line. I have plenty of guys around here who will help me out a lot. It’s going to be a tough guard, I just have to make it difficult for him."

1-866-751-9649

CSL@CelticsStuffLive.net

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Celtics Stuff Live 10/25: Steve Bulpett

Jughead — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 13:21:45 -0000

Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald joined Jon and Justin to help the CSL listeners prepare for the regular season opener on Tuesday night in Cleveland. Of course the guys discussed the handful of articles that have hit the internets recently on Rajon Rondo and Steve broke down how he sees the season playing out for the C's and their chief rivals for the Eastern Conference crown.

Look for us for a pair of Postgame shows this week following the opener in Cleveland on Tuesday and the home opener on Wednesday night. See you then!

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CSLive Postgame Show 10/21: Celtics at Cavs

Jughead — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 03:17:44 -0000

The Celtics beat the Cavs. Hooray!

Of course it was the exhibition season finale, so who the hell knows what that really means. But we do know that the Cavs threw quite a bit more of their starters at the Celtics reserve laden lineup, and despite this fact... the C's won going away. Jon, Justin, and Kevin Henkin wrapped up the exhibition season and tried to read the tea leaves into who will make this 15 man roster, and who might not if Mike Sweetney does if reports by Yahoo's Adrian Wojnarowski today on twitter. Justin leaned on Tony Allen as the weakest link, but Kevin and Jon were of the mind that Giddens is more vulnerable due to the trade value of TA's contract. Jon called Mo Williams, he of the ridiculous antics on the bench during last year's end of regular season Cavs rout, a "frontrunning turd." No response from Mo's camp, but he was last seen taking a sweet shot to his mug courtesy of @CSL_Duke's BFF, @SheldenWilliams.

Catch us Sunday at 9 PM when the Boston Herald's Steve Bulpett puts up with Jon and Justin.

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